Online supermarkets

Naturally, we’ve all heard about online shopping. When we talk about it, I don’t consider that groceries come into our mind at first. We know about Amazon or eBay where we can buy a broad variety of goods and services. However, this time let me introduce the idea of online supermarkets. It is something which is not that widespread yet. Perhaps this will be our future, but it also might be that only housewives of posh businessmen can afford themselves to order groceries straight to their doors. The service works inland too, but it is more popular abroad, like in the UK. Moreover, according to a study in this topic a spectacular boom can be expected between now and 2016.

The point of online shopping is that consumers can buy goods via the Internet. Nowadays, more and more online shops are available. To use them, you must register on the given site. After making a profile, giving your contacts, you can start to fill up your trolley. When you finish, you can select the most appropriate time you are free to receive the pack. Delivery fee depends on how much money you have to spend after finishing the shopping. If you reach a certain value, the delivery is free. You can use your credit card to make payments but it is also possible to pay in cash to the delivery guy.  

Kodály Method

Hello my dearest OnlineCommClass!

In this blog entry, I'd like to familiarize you with a great Hungarian audiovisual project called Kodály Method. What they basically do is remaking productions by various Hungarian bands and singers in a way that they create something brand new and unique.

In my favourite video, they went to shoot their film in a grade school with Erik Sumo Band, and took the kids there into the project.

If you fancy it, you might be interested in their party today at Merlin Theater. There is a slight chance you run into me there ;) Here is an external link for that:
http://www.facebook.com/events/264002440360489/

The Ricky Gervais Show

I have mentioned The Ricky Gervais Show during my well-prepared presentation on podcasts. It is the most downloaded podcast ever. All right? Good.
The Ricky Gervais Show features pointless conversation between British comedians and writing partners Ricky Gervais (obviously) and Stephen Merchant, and their friend, Karl Pilkington. Karl is a bit of an oddity, who doesn't really know much about the world, but he is unwittingly very funny. It really should be called The Karl Pilkington Show.
In 2010, an animated version of the podcast started on HBO, as a half-hour series. It features old recordings, with Hanna Barbera style animation added on top of it.
Here's a clip from it, my lovely chipmunks.

Man posts ex-girlfriend's nude pics on Facebook, gets convicted

We just discussed something like that in last week's class.  Here is the article, enjoy, and don't do anything stupid!

Mashable - the blog about social media

     Mashable is a Scottish-American news website and Internet news blog founded by Pete Cashmore. The site's primary focuses are news related to the social media, but it has several divisions where you can browse, too, such as Tech, Entertainment, and Business. 

Celebrities Read Tweets About Themselves

If this doesn't convince you that Twitter is great, nothing will.

Technology Entertainment and Design – the video site

First of all, I must lay down TED is a global set of conferences that would like to bring together the 3 fields: technology, entertainment and design. One of my favourite websites’ aim is to make the audience acquainted with big ideas. Operators and participants of the site passionately believe in the power of ideas that can influence – moreover, even change (!) – our world. That is why conferences were born and took it upon itself to disseminate clever, entertaining ideas word wide.

Some facts:

• Originally, it was founded as a one-off event in 1984.
• The conference was held annually from 1990.
• Since 2006, talks have been available online through the websites: TED.com, YouTube, iTunes. As for the next step, events have been offering live streaming of talks since 2009.
• Nowadays over 1,050 talks can be found on the site for free. According to data, videos had been viewed 50 million times by January 2009. And what is more, the viewing figure stood at more than 500 million in June 2011, which reflects a seriously growing global audience. à It clearly shows us the webpage managed to hit the target and it proved to be an effective way of online communication. 
• TED staff is headquartered in New York City and Vancouver.
• Talks address an increasingly wide range of topics, thinkers are challenged to present their ideas in the most innovative and fascinating ways in 18 minutes or less. Every single talk is subtitled in English and translated into a number of languages – over 300 translations were done by volunteers.
• TED Prize was initiated in 2005. There is a performer every year who is given the opportunity to make a “wish to change the world” and $100,000 for starting his revolution. 

On the site you can choose from hundreds of videos by topic, speaker, length, etc. I prefer the ones under the ‘funny’ label; still, this time I would like to show you something else. If you have 19 mins, watch this talk on flow by the Hungarian psychology professor Mihály Csíkszentmihályi. Enjoy!

Just a random comment

So while I was doing research for my BA thesis today, I came across an interesting sentiment in one of the books I was reading about New Media. It reminded me of what Anna Vera had written about her reasons for not registering on Twitter. She claimed that even without doing that, she had completed half of the assignment: she was completely aware of the different uses, advantages and disadvantages of Twitter.

So here is the excerpt. David Gauntlett (author, Professor of Media and Communications at the University of Westminster) is listing the key points of an outline for Media Studies 2.0 (in contrast to 1.0, which lacks an appropriate assessment of Web 2.0).

“The patronizing belief that students should be taught how to 'read' the media is replaced by the recognition that media audiences in general are already extremely capable interpreters of media content, with a critical eye and an understanding of contemporary media techniques, thanks in large to the large amount of coverage of this in popular media itself.” (David Gauntlett in Digital Cultures: Understanding New Media, 2009: 8)

Comment if you will, I just thought it was an interesting viewpoint, worthy of sharing. (And I haven't posted anything here in a while now, so this totally came in handy.)

And here's an awesome gif of Troy and Abed sitting in a blanket fort.

Tupac Back!

Tupac Amaru Shakur, better known as 2Pac is widely considered to be one of the greatest and most influential rappers of all time. The Harlem born and Oakland bound artist/poet/actor/activist was named on the list of 100 Greatest Artists of All-Time by Rolling Stone magazine and enjoyed massive critical and commercial success. Numerous classic albums, over 75 million records sold. An undisputably legendary legacy. 

On the night of September 7, 1996, after attending the Tyson - Seldon fight in Las Vegas, Tupac Shakur was shot four times in a drive-by. Six days later, he died of his wounds in the hospital leaving the music industry and millions of fans in deep sorrow.

Thanks to modern technology; however, Tupac's back. On April 15, 2012, a hologram of Pac performed at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in front of a crowd of more than 100.000 people. During a show headlined by Dr. Dre, who was the visionary behind the tribute, the legend rapped two of his most popular songs: "Hail Mary" and "2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted" featuring Snoop Dogg. A truly emotional, yet spectacular moment and an unforgettable salute to the true master of the game.

Is it possible that we have witnessed a future trend?

Celebrity juice. Not from concentrate.

Perezhilton.com is all about celebrity gossips written by the homosexual Mario Armando Lavanderia who also craves the limelight. 

The site is pink and flashy and divided into 2 columns and many sections. Honestly, I took me a while to make sense of every little boxes. 

The blog is mainly about gossips, but there are sections which deal with fashion (cocoperez), fitness and health (fitperez), celebrity kids (perezitos) and animals (teddyhilton). Of course he has twitter and facebook accounts and even a shop where fans can buy his shirts or bags, incredible! 

He also likes posting pictures decorated with paint. 


Actually, I do not know who read this blog since there are not many comments or likes. Celebrities even hate Perez Hilton because of his cruel remarks. 

Notes on twitter.blog.com

Hey Guys!

I think you've already read and heard my opinion about Twitter and guess what: I accidentally chose a post-it in class with the following note: twitter.blog.com, so my negative reactions reached the directory of Twitter and this is my challenging punishment that I have to follow the events of Twitter.

(I think it's needless to state it again but I will: I do know the advantages of Twitter, I like it, I agree with its users but I do not want to have an account because of personal issues and that's it, nothing more.)

I started to catch up with this blog's entries and my early observation is the following: they care too much about the new star, Ryan Gosling, which is totally acceptable concerning his good-looking appearance and acting skills.

Twitter.blog.com is a blog, where the editors usually write a weekly summary of the events. They quote the most interesting Tweets and complement them with opinions and background information. You can read about stars' games and life and there are some really important issues and cases, for example, this week Tweeters saved the life of a kidnapped South African man, which is an amazing and fortunate story of the guy.

The blog's outlook has the same blue colors and design as Twitter, and their description-like text is the following "Every week we capture and share the incredible moments that could happen #OnlyOnTwitter". From now on I will share with you my experiences with this official Twitter blog and I'll emphasize the most interesting happenings.


Cheers,
Anna

About my work

Hi Everybody!

Last time I wrote about almost nothing, so now I decided to share my work with you because you may find it interesting.

Some of you know that back in October I started working at FUNZINE magazine as an editor intern. This January I brought my Nikon camera with me to the office and I suddenly changed position at the magazine. 

The editor in chief sent me to different performances at Budapest's theaters where I was literally thrown into the profound water as we say it in Hungarian. I fortunately managed to do the task and I took some nice pictures, which now I'd like to share with you through links. So get an insight into my life out of school!

Cheers

Find my photos here!

Google +

Google+ is a relatively new social network site. The reason why it is really good is its circles. On most of the social network sites, we are 'hunting for friends'. But are they REALLY our friends???! It’s quite awkward if our teachers, boss or colleagues see a photo of us that was taken in the weekend party. 
I have some friends whose facebook-friends include some of their other friends’ parents. From that time, my friends don’t dare to share or comment as many things as they did before. They feel uncomfortable because they could never know who will check them. 


Despite, if you use Google+, you are entirely aware of which information can be visible by whom as you can create your own circles – as many as you wish. Thanks to your grouping, you can share the given info only with that group(s) you choose to share with.


Watch this video that contrasts facebook and google+ in a funny way:

This one helps you to explore Google+:

And to get to know more about circles, watch this one:

Bunny

Have a nice Easter Monday!

I.Watch.I.Read

The blog I have been following lately is called I.watch.i.read. The owner of the blog is a Hindi guy called Laya Maheshwari, a college student and movie buff who shares his reviews on films and occasionally on books and PC games (Lego Harry Potter LOL). He started the blog in June 2010 and has posted a few entries each month since then. In the owner’s introductory note, I found that he had a team of people with whom he was jointly working on the website. He named each of his friends who were dealing with the design of the blog  (e.g. the logo on the top and the stars at the end of the reviews).

Looking at the blog, I found it very well organized, and its details meticulously edited. The blog contains a sort of slideshow section (dunno how else to call it), in which the latest four reviews are shown in brief. Below that come the actual posts in cut versions so that you can click ’read more’ on the one you are interested in. The reviews introduce Hollywood films such as “The Iron Lady”, “The Woman in Black”, “The Hunger Games” (latter being the last post written in March 23) and sometimes Bollywood films as well, which is reasonable considering the guy’s whereabouts.  The content of the reviews is professionally written, comprehensive and very detailed. It gives such a vivid account I felt like I was actually watching the film. 

However, the blog doesn't seem to be very frequented. The couple of comments I saw on some posts were in most cases written by the owner's close friends. Actually, one of his posts written in February this year, namely "Of $50, a little housekeeping and a lot of slacking" is addressed to "Regular readers (yes, both of you)", very self-ironic indeed. This post is the only one since the intro that says something about his life, how he's getting on with school, and how he manages his blog. I think entries are very handy as they are more casual and entertaining than all those high-brow reviews, and also it's good to know something about the person whose blog you adore so much.

All in all, it is quite a resourceful blog, considering both its design and content. If you are into movies or just ran out of ideas what to watch, then consult this blog for advice.

P A J I B A - Sweetened by Mock, Lightened by Droll

This is the name of the site I followed in the last days. Hmm…where should I start? I was extremely curious where this name ‘pajiba’ comes from and what it could mean. Khm…according to the description I found on its website, pajiba refers to female private part as one with a stuffy nose might say it.

The previous slogan

Apart from this piece of information I couldn’t really get useful facts about the site. Unfortunately, I don’t know when the site was started – however it is mentioned the website was temporarily shut down because of its political column in 2006, so it’s a little clue: the site has been existing since 2006 for sure. :) I don’t know either how much money they could make on it. 

However, I do know that it is a movie/ television/ book review & gossip site. Its author group is an eclectic set of critics which involves 14 permanent bloggers, plus 5 collaborators as ‘featured players’ and the site’s illustrious regular commentators. The whole team criticizes harshly; everybody says his/her own opinion frankly, openly without any affectation. Some pieces of writings are quite rude; the authors usually use coarse words and slangs so sometimes it’s not that easy to make out. But certainly we get the gist of them. 

A nice, big picture is attached to every single post. Besides, videos are also embedded. If you click on ‘video’ in the header you can find one what presents a soundtrack or another one that promotes a new TV show. You will find videos of amusing and even scientific content; there is a wide range of style.

The site is totally up-to-date. I mean there was a day when 14 new blogs were uploaded! It’s impossible to follow. :) Of course this is not the every day case, but after a 1-day omission, I’m sure a new big dose is ready to arrive.

The structure of pajiba.com is absolutely combined. You have too many options in the header to choose from. Still, I will try to give a summary of what you can find in each window.

Among the latest film and tv reviews, under ‘guides’ and ‘lists’ you can find blog entries making different classifications – which is my favourite part. Please, let me to be immersed in this section a little bit more. There are entries, like these: 

- 10 Real-Life Couples Which Feature Television Actors That You Had No Idea Existed 

- You Know I Can’t Let You Slide Through My Hands: All the Pretty Men

- Mindhole Blowers: 25 Bands That Wisely Changed Their Original Name

- 11 Crappiest Movies of Julia Robert’s Carrier

- You’re the Vulgarian, You F*ck: Our Favourite Verbal Film Fights

Usually, blog entries in these categories are quite short, it gives only a short description (sometimes only 2 lines) and nice pics are coming immediately. In other cases, for instance when we are reading a review, the extent of writing is much longer of course. Moreover, it isn’t rare you find references to other websites.

Under ‘news’ section you will find the latest trailers and the author opinion of the movie. Here you have the opportunity to peep into the upcoming film.

‘Celeb’ and ‘love’ parts provide us gossips; the genre of articles here is the same as tabloids’.

Towards the end of the list, there is a so called ‘the rest’ part, where you can find plenty of new tags. You will find here a dictionary, which could be useful as there are terms created by the author group. In addition, probably this is the hiding-place of more vulgar content pieces, but this is also the place for interviews, music reviews, dvd releases and reviews, etc.

Last but not least, if you click on the ‘cbr iv’ you are redirected to a new webpage – called Cannonball Read IV – which is specialized on book reviews.

This site has its own history. It started on Pajiba originally in 2008. After a time, this part developed into an independent webpage. The birth of this site is due to a competition, which pressed the competitors for reading and reviewing 100 books within a year’s time. The rivalry is held in every year; however, in 2010 the rules get friendlier and more attainable as the numbers of required reviews cut down to 52. So, if you have literary veins and passion for writing, take part in group blogging! (Unfortunately, I don’t know anything about allowances in money but you can get in touch with the competent authority.)

It’s a pity there isn’t an archive by date but you can find every post in each category in alphabetical order. As might be expected, you can write comments to all the entries and you can follow the site via Facebook, Twitter, Stumble Upon and Google+. Pajiba has a small, but growing and very devoted readership. As one of the Pajiba publishers depicted their average readers: they are “[w]ell-educated, liberal leaning, well-read, cynical smaller-budget movie fans that […] are very judgmental.” (Dustin Rowles)

What I’m sure about is that you won’t be bored if you visit Pajiba.com (especially if you are a BiG BiG movie fan). So what are you waiting for? 

Bloggin' all around me

Dear Media Group,

Two weeks ago I stole a small pink post-it paper after class. I grabbed it as fast as a could, and hurried for the door in a rather girlish fashion, before anyone could notice my demise. The paper I took contained sensitive information: the HTML address of a webblog I started to read soon after taking care of my six adopted children, the youngest of whom, Zulu, is a 4-years old African kid. Nevertheless, I will now return to my original topic, and try to stick to it through the whole post.

The blog I will be reviewing now is called Bloggasm. Bloggasm.com was created, and is run by young Simon Owens, and is mainly concerned with prominent bloggers and mainstream journalism. All the entries, containing reviews and interviews as well as short articles, are media related.

Entries are professionally written articles, both topic- and stylewise. I would rather call them articles than simple blog entries, since even the layout of the site resembles that of a daily newspaper, despite that it's missing any officials logos, or banners.

I was not too happy when I realised that the last entry to this blog was posted in mid-december. Bloggasm has been silent ever since. I am looking forward to seeing new entries in the near future, for this site provided me not only with news around the world of the media, but gave me an upclose image of people working in and for the media.

Hacking life

Long time, no see, everyone! So let's not waste any more time, here's my review of the blog I had to follow.

The Lifehacker (www.lifehacker.com) got my attention with its promising name/title, that's why I chose it. At first glance, the blog is mainly about the products of Apple, Microsoft, etc, and things that are connected to them, like programs, upgrades, downloads, and little tips of how to make their usage easier (life hacks = "anything that solves an everyday problem in a clever or non-obvious way", according to Wikipedia).

As I'm not really interested in this kind of stuff, I was a bit sceptical at first, but I found out that the blog covers a much bigger ground than I expected. There are also tips on how to cut back on your smartphone-addiction, how to keep your food fresh in the fridge, how to tell if your credit card got hacked, how to keep your belongings safe on a holiday, and lots and lots of others.

The entries are kept neatly and can be accessed easily (okay, not so easily; it's a bit chaotic at first, but you can get used to it). The staff keeps the blog very much up-to-date, putting up more than 15 entires every single day, and they also pay attention to the webpage's Twitter account (http://twitter.com/lifehacker).

All in all, great website, I'm actually thinking about following it, not because I have to, but because I want to.

I tried to find a funny picture but I failed. Sorry to dissapoint you all.

meseböl

As I was absent from the class where the blogs were assigned, I have decided to choose one on my own. I guess it's against the rules -- that must make me an against-the-rules guy. So I thought I would write about a site that I have following more-or-less for the past couple of years: Mashable. (http://mashable.com/)  If Mashable was already assigned to somebody else, then I am really sorry for pooping in their pie. I'll gladly buy them a beer for the inconvenience.

An independent news site, Mashable mainly deals with news about social media, technology, and digital culture. As such, it is a great source of information for most of the topics that are relevant to our course: blogs, Twitter, Facebook, wikis, etc. The site is constantly updated with news, in a variety of formats: infographics, videos, photos, and good old text. As it is often the case with big, influential blogs, Mashable is technically a blog, but it looks and feels like a news site.  The header at the top of the site lists the main news sections of Mashable, which are Social Media, Tech, Business, Entertainment, US & World (US is not part of the world), and Video.

Claiming the 2nd place in Technorati's Top 100 blogs (http://technorati.com/blogs/top100/) at the time of this writing, Mashable sees 20 million unique visitors every month, and is followed by 4 million people on social media services, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. Interesting fact: I am one of those people on Facebook. I think the reason that so many people follow this site is that it is a well-written, easily understandable, and credible source for news and information about social media; something that many people are really interested in right now.

Boooooiiiiingg

The blog I was tasked to follow is Boing Boing, a multi-award winning publishing entity and one of the most popular blogs on the Internet. Run by up and coming writers and accomplished journalists, Boing Boing deals with technological and cultural curiosities, and exciting or funny stuff from the web.

Boing Boing started off as a small circulation self-published magazine by current co-editor Mark Frauenfelder and his wife in 1988. 15 issues were published with the maximum circulation of 17500. Common topics included sci-fi, technology, futurism and left wing politics. In 1995, Boing Boing was transformed into a web site and was relaunched as a weblog in 2000.

Over the years, the staff has been expanded with the addition of several editors who previously contributed to the likes of The New York Times, Wired magazine, The Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post and The Guardian. In addition, Boing Boing often features guest bloggers including scientists, journalists and authors. I don’t know 99% of them.

Boing Boing is supported by advertising. In the first business quarter of 2010, they reportedly earned $27000 so it is safe to say that the editors can make a nice living without the worry of going to the poorhouse anytime soon.

I was curious to find out how they can make this money off of this blog, but I haven’t really come up with an answer. Personally, I have never heard of this weblog before and it seems to me that they don’t really care about marketing a lot. Surely, in accordance with the current trends, they are available on Facebook and Twitter, but these options are not exploited enough and the editors don’t really have many followers either. Considering the fact that Boing Boing is one of the most visited blogs, it was quite surprising to realize that there aren’t many user comments. I expected to see hundreds and hundreds of replies, but the post count didn’t even go above 10 sometimes.

The layout is quite simple and esthetic, you are definitely not going to get lost on this site. Most importantly, it is a pleasure to the eye due to its colorful display filled with large images. Also, there are different sections available from the header (?) such as features, books, reviews, science and geek stuff. I especially like the very clever archive. Of course, there is a monthly archive rooting back to 1999 and you can search recent articles listed by days. Moreover, there is a tag cloud which features hundreds of keywords with the most popular ones boldfaced and highlighted in different color.

The blog is updated quite frequently. Up until 4pm ET (Eastern Time Zone), 19 articles were published on April 2. In average, there are at least 30 posts daily. Today’s subjects included Autism Awareness Day, Tibet, Irish Catholic priests sharing gay porn, etc. The posts are usually written in an informal, casual style so visitors can perceive and understand everything easily. Also, the articles contain a lot of references such as links to other sites, quotations, excerpts from books, etc.

In addition, Boing Boing produces two weekly podcasts entitled “Boing Boing Boing” and “Get Illuminated” which are intended to cover actualities, the week’s posts and feature interviews with creative figures such as writers and artists. I don’t know 99% of these people either.

All in all, Boing Boing is quite a decent blog; however, it is not exactly my cup of tea. Surely, I’ve read many exciting stuff over the weeks, but vast majority of the subjects are not really enticing for me. Concerning their success, I’m quite clueless. Maybe I should keep following them and take some notes so one day I could get over 25 grand in a quarter. Git dat dinero, muchachos and chiquitas!